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Make a line go up and down
Hello Forum!
I’m new here, and I’m really wanting to learn AE. Right now I’m working on a project that I came up with that requires me to “cast” a line (fishing line) down, and bring it back up.
The project is all clipart and does not have any live feed. So essentially, I am just wanting a white line to come down from the boat, and come back up. I already know how to move the boat in/out and the fish in/up (when being reeled in). If there is a better way of syncing the fish to the line that’d be great, but I’m sure I can figure that out.
I learned how to create a line and animate it, but I can’t get it to go back up. All I can do is get it to go down. Then after the seconds are up, the line disappears down and goes away. I need it to do the reverse.
Any help would be great!
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3 Replies
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For the first thing about learning AE, here’s a great link with a collection of different online learning resources for AE. Number 4 has a couple of great free ones. Getting started with After Effects (CS4, CS5, CS5.5, CS6, & CC)
What technique are you using to make your line go down currently? I would probably create a solid and add a mask where I want my line, then just add the Generate stroke effect. Then just animate the stroke “End” parameter.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb. -
Hey John! Thanks for the response. I’ll be sure to read up on the AE material you linked.
Right now, I got the line to go down by creating a solid > effect > generate > write-on. I adjusted the brush size, etc… to what I wanted, but I can’t figure out how to get the line to retrieve. After the stroke length time is up, the line descends down upon itself. I would like for it to ascend up instead.
I tried your approach with creating a solid > pen/mask, and created a straight line to descend down. But again, I couldn’t figure out how to bring it back up. How do I go about editing the stroke “end” parameter?
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I don’t want to insult you but since you are new at this, I’l ask you are using the “stopwatch” to set the keyframes, right? You would set a keyframe at the start when you want the line to move down, set it another one when it’s fully extended, then another to keep it extended until it’s time to come back, finally a last one to retract it.
I’ve made a simple project to show the technique. 9073_lineexample.aep.zip
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.
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